Russia ramps up deportations of Ukrainian children with ‘summer camps’: researchers

Russian authorities are sponsoring 'Useful Vacations' for thousands of youth in Russia and occupied territories of Ukraine, which researchers say are fronts for re-education.

Russia is ramping up its forcible deportations of Ukrainian children this summer with explicit aims to re-educate and militarize them for Moscow’s fighting forces, researchers and advocates say.

Authorities in Russia and occupied territories in Ukraine’s east are sending thousands of young people to so-called “summer camps” that promote Russian language, culture and propaganda, the researchers say. Under a program the Kremlin has dubbed “Useful Vacations,” children are also being sent to “visit” Russia for “patriotic” and “educational activities,” according to public Telegram posts by regional governments in the Russia-aligned Donbas.

In fact, researchers say, these are fronts for kidnapped children and orphans to be indoctrinated, with the ultimate goal of giving them Russian citizenship and erasing their Ukrainian identities.

“These children are becoming mobilization sources for Russian officials in the occupied territories,” said Vladyslav Havrylov, a research fellow at Georgetown University and a lead researcher of the Where Are Our People project uncovering the locations of forcibly deported Ukrainians.

“In some cases, they’re making children sign letters (forged by Russian and Russia-aligned officials) that say they don’t want to be Ukrainian citizens, they want to be Russian citizens. This is a criminal practice.”

The illegal deportation and re-education of Ukrainian children has become a top international concern as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds on after more than two years.

At last weekend’s Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland, where efforts to secure the return of those children were discussed at a meeting led by Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the deportations and erasure of Ukrainian identity “an element of genocide.”

“That’s pure colonialism,” he told reporters Sunday morning after the meeting. “These are things that Russia needs to be accountable for.”